The Daily Show: June 18, 2007

I've got to start this post with a few items... First of all, there are currently a bunch of auctions going on to support McSweeney's and one of the things up for bid is a personal tour of The Daily Show guided by Resident Expert John Hodgman. It's currently going for $1,575, so get on it. Secondly, I should probably explain the photo I used tonight. It's from a goofy TDS piece called "Pitch" from 2000, back when Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert were correspondents. I just had to use it in honor of the fact that all three guys will appear in this episode. Yes, I had to use it.

"Crisis in Gaza: Warportunity in the Middle East": Hamas has taken over the Gaza Strip, so that's... not good news. You know what else isn't good news? Dan Bakkedahl's new sideburns. Those were kind of scary. And yeah, I just compared the Hamas take-over to Bakkedahl's new facial hair. I'm a horrible person. Senior Gaza Correspondent Aasif Mandvi elaborated on the bloodshed and managed to work in some "We Didn't Start the Fire" lyrics too.

"Shits & Riggles": A new Rob Riggle segment covering films, I'm guess. He dedicated this segment to Evan Almighty, which he said was super-crappy, but only because of Steve Carell. Ooh, Riggle's a jealous one.

And finally, the part that I (and everyone else, probably) have been waiting for all evening: the interview with Steve Carell. The last time he was on the show, he was promoting The 40 Year-Old Virgin. It's amazing how far he's come since then. The opening "How do you stay so grounded?" gag was quite cute, but I think that's only because it was Steve Carell doing it and he makes everything amazing. The interview was a sweet trip down memory lane, as Jon and Steve talked about old segments like "Produce Pete". I wanted to look up the animal thing they were talking about on YouTube, but then I remembered that YouTube hates Daily Show fans. Sigh.

Jon/Stephen: Stephen Colbert brought up some fond memories of the old "Even Stephven" segments, especially the hateful parts. Over-dramatic Colbert is precious. Moment of Zen: Fox News had some, uh, superhero guests... Fair and balanced superhero guests.